Pulse power technology involves many defense and cutting-edge technology fields such as high-power radars, large-scale accelerators, high-power pulsed power supplies, etc. The core of pulse power technology is the precise control of high current pulses on the time domain and amplitude, so as to achieve accurate operation of radars, accelerators, and other devices. Therefore, it is important to study the control of the current pulse waveform in the pulse power field.
The control of the current pulse waveform includes the compression of the pulse width, the splitting of a single pulse, and the like, to meet the operational requirements of the pulse power systems. The traditional method uses electrical components to achieve this. However, currently the relevant electrical components are mostly made of semiconductor silicon materials, the performance of the components is limited by the physical properties of the silicon material itself, and thus its ability to withstand high voltage and high current is very limited. Therefore, in the operating conditions of a magnitude of tens to hundreds of kilovolts and kiloamperes which are common in the field of pulse power technology, a large number of components are required to realize the regulation of the current pulse waveform, resulting in a large volume and a high power loss.
As the preparation technology of wide bandgap semiconductor materials is getting increasingly mature, people have turned their attention to using wide bandgap semiconductor materials for high-power photoconductive switches. Silicon carbide, as a representative of wide bandgap semiconductors, has more prominent advantages than other wide bandgap semiconductor materials—that is, a high critical breakdown field strength and a high thermal conductivity, which were absent in the conventional semiconductor materials such as silicon. According to the characteristics of silicon carbide materials, a number of silicon carbide photoconductive switches have been proposed in recent years. The on and off states of such switches are controlled by a laser signal, which is very simple and accurate. At the same time, because of the excellent physical properties of silicon carbide materials, a single silicon carbide switch can withstand high-power operating environments of a magnitude of tens to hundreds of kilovolts and kiloamperes. Such a switch is the ideal switch that is expected in the field of pulse power, which switch will make the pulse power system be greatly simplified, has a reduced size, a lower cost, and improved stability, and thus is of great significance to the defense technology and other fields.